


Just Like You

by Ashida



Series: 15 a Piece Prompt Challenge [12]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Friends to Lovers, Hand Jobs, M/M, very minor smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 12:17:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5416724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashida/pseuds/Ashida
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em> He never fucking expected to meet striking blue eyes that were locked on him and only him, and the smirk by way of greeting as Grimmjow goddamn Jaegerjaquez looked up at him from the bottom of the tiered lecture hall.</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Like You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Grinner_H](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grinner_H/gifts).



> Part of a collection of 15 prompts given to me by [Hiro.](http://archiveofourown.org/users/oninoshirosaki)  
> The prompt for this fic is [#69 - The True You](http://insane-1.deviantart.com/art/200-Writing-Challenge-68163506)
> 
>    
> This is where I admit I have no idea what I'm doing with this fandom, I haven't read many Bleach works before so I have no idea how things go, but worth a shot, right? *posts anyway*

 

Ichigo was used to being different, but he never expected it to be like this. This, _this_ was shit.

 

He’d finally managed to control his presence enough to be able to head back to the human world without people being nauseous in his company, after so long he’d been excited at the prospect of returning to humanity, as excited as Ichigo could get, anyway.

 

But everyone had moved on from Karakura town though, because it really had been _that_ long, and so Ichigo supposed he should too, he went to college, where the only thing that was like it used to be was the fact he wasn’t like as anyone else.

 

He thought it could be the same, find a few friends, join a kendo club maybe, study and sleep his way through college on a bad diet and not enough sleep like people his age did – with his Shinigami thing on the side of course.

 

The problem was though, that no one would fucking come near him.

 

Oh, plenty of girls had tried to say hello, he’d had a few conversations and a few laughs, he even got morning waves and fits of giggles if he so much as dipped his head in acknowledgement, but Ichigo could still see they were uneasy when they were near him, let alone next to him for a whole lecture. He was still working on it. Being strong beyond measure sucked sometimes.

 

The other young men all had this ridiculous fucking pride thing shoved so far up their ass that wouldn’t even let them say hello, cos here was Ichigo; this orange haired, tall, muscular loner that all the girls looked at, of course it’d piss them off. Ichigo couldn’t care less about that sort of bullshit, if they considered stuff like that a problem then they knew nothing, and he didn’t want talk to them anyway.

 

The kendo club banned him the moment he broke the first bamboo sword on someone’s chest – the club captain no less – and said he was way too violent for anything of the sort. All he did then was laugh in their face, and yeah he must have sounded insane to the lot of them, cos the fucking irony of the situation was just too damn funny. Violent? They didn’t know the half of it. Anyone else Ichigo knew would have destroyed them all.

 

 

So here he was in the lecture hall for medicine - cos he might as well take after his old man – sitting at the back by himself with the gap around him that people always seemed to leave, and all he could fucking think of as he slouched back in his seat with a pen grinding in his teeth was if he’d made the right choice to come back or not.

 

He hadn’t exactly fit in there, either. Now it was something he agonized over, it grated on him how he craved for normalcy so he could have what everyone else did. Sure, he’d had visitors, Rukia came to the big smoke for a weekend and mocked his piss poor efforts of trying to play the host and tour guide, Ikkaku and Renji came to make sure he was ‘keeping up with his skills’, when really they just wanted to see if he’d gotten any weaker so they could beat him for once, but he definitely hadn’t, and no way in hell was he gonna lose to them.

 

He’d seen Orihime and Chad, Uryuu too, caught up with them on long weekends and had a snippet of the way things used to be, but it all ended up with him back in his dorm room by himself with silence to keep him company.

 

The thing was; he was used to being different, but he wasn’t used to being alone, only now was he starting to realize the difference.

 

He was _only_ human after all, of course something like this would get to him. He found himself thinking of going back, or going home to Karakura town to work a small time job and get nowhere like everyone else did who stayed in that place.

 

He found himself thinking of those times in high school where he’d stress the fuck out at a new ‘exchange student’ in his class, and how he loathed those people invading his life at that time, looking back on it now he could laugh to himself, cos Renji in a school uniform was fucking ridiculous.

 

He found himself thinking that he wouldn’t actually mind if something like that happened again though, and then sigh at his pathetic wishful thinking to bury his head in his forearms and wait for the lecture to be over, he’d go over the notes on line, not like he had anything else to do.

 

He would stick it out, that was the conclusion he always came to no matter how many times he went through this thought process.

 

Anything else would be like defeat, and whether he was competing against Kenpachi or against himself, Ichigo fucking hated losing.

 

With his head currently rested on his forearms like so many times before, he closed his eyes and waited for the lecture to start – the sooner it started the sooner it was over.

 

Today though, it didn’t start with topic introduction. The whispers started before his professor opened his mouth.

 

“A foreigner? His eyes are amazing.” Came the giggles a few rows up.

 

“Check this guy out, he looks crazy.” That was from the group of rich boys sitting in the corner of the lecture all.

 

“I wonder where he’s from.”

 

“No way is this guy here to study medicine.”

 

“Oooh. He looks like a bad boy.”

 

The scandal kept on coming, the professor had yet to get a word in, and of course with all the hubbub Ichigo’s curiosity was piqued enough for him to raise his head and see what all the fuss was about.

 

He never expected _this,_ either.

 

Never fucking expected to meet striking blue eyes that were locked on him and only him, and the smirk by way of greeting as Grimmjow goddamn Jaegerjaquez looked up at him from the bottom of the tiered lecture hall.

 

“Class, we have a new foreign exchange student, Grimmjow Jaegerjaguez from… where did you say you were from again?” the white haired professor scratched his head as he tried to remember the no doubt bullshit place Grimmjow had told him.

 

Grimmjow just shrugged though, nonchalant and blasé as he ever was, his cobalt gaze not leaving Ichigo all the while. “Doesn’t matter where I’m from.” With that, he took one glance at the room all ogling him, “’Sup?”

 

Then, he took the steps two at a time with his long, powerful legs all the way to the back of the room to his row of seats, and all Ichigo could fucking do was stare at that blue eyed bastard just like everyone else was.

 

He was next to Ichigo in a flash, sitting down in the back row where only he used to sit, staring back with that smirk still on his face. “Oi, Kurosaki, you know I hate it when you look at me with those eyes like that.” And then the smile reached his eyes as he sat back and kicked his feet up on the lecture bench like he was the fucking king of the building. Shit, Ichigo had been glad to see him once before, and he was even more glad to see him now.

 

“What the hell are you doing here?” was the only clueless question that came to Ichigo’s mind at that moment.

 

He didn’t give a fucking damn at how most of the class were trying to eavesdrop in on their conversation while pretending to listen to the lecture that’d just started, cos Grimmjow laughed to himself as his eyes turned distant in a look that Ichigo had seen in himself, the picture of looking back on memories and the hit of melancholy that came with reality.

 

Grimmjow didn’t exactly have a place to belong, either, and the mere flash of fragility was like this window of truth and honesty that he’d never seen from his former foe before, it was enough to settle his nerve, and enough to answer his question.

 

The former Espada looked at him with that playful air back in his eye though, the moment gone faster than Grimm could swing a blade, and the self reassured expression that Ichigo had always admired took over. “Thought the loner could use some company.” Came the off-handed remark with only an allusion of his usual arrogance.

 

“Just like you, huh?” Ichigo deadpanned back, because they both knew the obvious now, that they were similar in more ways than one. But they’d never really say anything concrete out loud.

 

With an exhaled sigh and a bit more honesty to go with it, Grimmjow looked at him once more like this company was all he knew, and Ichigo wondered just how many times this fucking guy would catch him off guard, “Yeah, just like me.”

 

It was amazing the things the Soul Society could pull, because the exchange student Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez never went back to where he supposedly came from.

 

Instead, the open space surrounding Ichigo increased, and that was okay, because he had someone else just like himself sitting next to him every day from then on out.

 

*

 

Things started off just like that, they didn’t talk much at first, because they were still all prickly edges and untrusting tensions, never mind the whole former mortal enemies deal to boot.

 

They used to go their separate ways after classes; he had no fucking idea where Grimmjow went, and he thought it was okay that he didn’t know.

 

That was until it wasn’t, that was until just sitting next to him for lectures and lab tests wasn’t enough, that was until it must have been the exact same thing for Grimmjow too, because with yet more words unspoken, it started turning into something completely fucking different.

 

And he never would have expected _this_ , either.

 

Now, they’d both said good fucking riddance to their bygones, the new challenge was beating each others tests scores for the hell of it, and it turned out the bat shit crazy Arrancar with his on loan gigai was actually really damn smart, and who ever lost that round of test marks had to by the first round of drinks when they went out that weekend.

 

That was how they ended up at Ichigo’s dorm room weekend after weekend, filling the small space with noise and energy that would be tomorrows memories, that was how Grimmjow just fucking took it upon himself to move on in after he eventually stopped leaving for days on end, cos Ichigo’s room had always been a double, there’d just never been anyone game enough to live with him until now.

 

Grimmjow was the only fucking person game for pretty much anything, and, he was the only person who could really keep up with him, push him and antagonize him in a way that Ichigo craved because _nothing_ was more fun than a challenge, they’d slip from their bodies and into soul form and beat the living daylights out of each other until they were both satisfied and pleasantly humming with the exhaustion that they could only find in the other.

 

Yeah, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez himself was one giant challenge, and Ichigo was glad for it, whatever it was.

 

 

*

 

 

They’d been living together for a few months now, the fiery pair that argued just as much as they laughed, everyone stayed away from their door, and as they both got ready in one of their rare moments of silence, Grimmjow suddenly piped up out of nowhere as he pulled his shirt over his head.  “You’re alright, Ichigo.” Was all he said.

 

Still, Ichigo couldn’t help but laugh at the first _real_ acknowledgement of whatever this was, he couldn’t help but agree with his own next words, too. “Yeah, you too.”

 

 

*

 

 

They were back at the kendo club this time, the night before Ichigo told Grimmjow what’d happened in one of his efforts to try to find a place to fit in, you’d think a bunch of other people that wielded weapons would accept him willingly, but nope. Like the crazy bastard he was though; Grimmjow decided he wanted to try and join with the hopes of being kicked out too. He was as stubborn as Ichigo, so of course once the idea was there it was going to happen sooner or later, and Ichigo figured he might as well come along, because no matter what anyone said, it was always exciting to watch Grimmjow swing a blade.

 

So here he was leaning in the doorway watching Grimmjow wreak absolute carnage, he could see him holding back his true skill, on the edge of something truly beautiful, a promise of destruction and the confidence of control. He wasn’t even the one fighting Grimmjow, and yet his heart was going this fast, because he was pure thrill and wilderness and Ichigo realized just how much he liked _everything_ about him, and given their past that was pretty fucked up.

 

The display he was putting on now was enough to knock the club captain to his feet yet again, not that he was surprised. It was over way too fast.

 

“Y-you, you’re way too violent for an honorable club such as the Kendo club!” the four eyed captain sputtered from the floor, and once again Ichigo couldn’t help but laugh from the doorway where he leant, it pulled Grimmjow’s attention back to him in a way that made his next words more satisfying than the last time he’s said them. “What do ya know, Grimmjow, you’re a monster just like me!”

 

The trademark smirk he got then was something he’d become fond of, because the truth in his words was something only they shared. “Yeah, I guess I am, huh?” Grimmjow chuckled as he threw his broken bamboo sword down and joined Ichigo in leaving.

 

“You really didn’t need to do that though.” Ichigo shoved his hands in his pockets as they decided to head somewhere for lunch.

 

“I did! It’s been too long since I’ve caused some trouble, don’t you reckon?” came the low tease with a wicked smile and a cheesy wink of his eye that was way too fucking captivating.

 

“You really are a bastard.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, just like you.”

 

*

 

 

“Oi, you sure get a lot of looks from the girls, don’t ya?” Grimmjow teased on an afternoon walk back to their dorm room with coffee in hand, his hair was crazy messy as ever as they walked in the breeze, they’d been inseparable long enough for him to notice it getting longer now.

 

“What, like you don’t?” he countered instead, maybe he should get a haircut.

 

“I do?”

 

“You do.” Ichigo deadpanned, because how Grimmjow hadn’t noticed he was a hot topic here at University, he had no fucking clue; he must have either been dense or willfully ignorant. _He_ certainly noticed how many girls looked at Grimmjow, and yet again that brazen guy had been game enough to point out something they were both thinking about the other.

 

“They must think I’m hot like you then, eh?” And this wasn’t the usual joking comparison, this was low and daring and enough to stop Ichigo in his tracks to stare as Grimmjow just turned back to look at him with a heated acknowledgement.

 

It wasn’t like Ichigo hadn’t noticed either, that yeah, Grimmjow was actually hot as fuck. “Or… they could think I’m hot like you.” he returned the underlying feelings as he fell back into step, uncertainty on his tongue and his heart in his throat cos this was even further into the unknown.

 

“That’s probably more like it.” that fucker preened in mockery now, combing his fingers though his hair and chuckling to himself as they walked on, taking them back to the normal that Ichigo had grown content with.

 

“You’re full of shit, Grimmjow.” He couldn’t help but snort his sarcasm though, as well as bump him with an elbow in hopes of watching him juggle his coffee to stop it from spilling. No such luck though.

 

“Just like you, huh?” Grimmjow suggested as he looked down between them, his pinpoint glance clearly pointing out the new lack of distance between them as neither of them made an effort to move apart after bumping shoulders.

 

Now that feeling loneliness was about as marginal to Ichigo as the space between them, and the feeling of wanting to diminish it even more was taking its place.

 

 

*

 

That’s when the real looks started, the sleeping shirtless like they’d always done and Grimmjow finally not bothering to hide how he looked at Ichigo as they got dressed in the mornings, or after sparring and showering, it was Ichigo looking back; at the lines of Grimmjow’s muscles and his shredded physique, and reveling in the fact that he was the one that kept that nimble figure in deadly shape. It was the scar on the stomach of his gigai where his hole should be, and the realization that hollow or not; they were one in the same.

 

Then he’d meet Grimmjow’s eyes after their open looks and he’d _know_ that they’d been thinking the equivalent thing. It was Grimmjow still staring at him as Ichigo chickened out and finished getting dressed with his eyes down turned, cos Grimmjow was much more game than he was in this.

 

*

 

And today, over half a year on into their growing attachment, there were moments exactly like the one he was in now. The next level that was so close he could almost taste it on his lips, feel it under his fingers and _want_ it, even though he wasn’t quite sure what _it_ was yet.

 

 

Like now; he’d been passing through a doorway only to come face to face, chest to chest and eye to fucking eye with him, and Ichigo reeled, cos fuck Grimmjow really was a pretty bastard. Loneliness fled completely, because Grimmjow could get under his skin just by looking at him the way he did, and he guessed it was the exact same look that _he_ gave Grimmjow that Grimmjow obviously didn’t hate anymore. It was a pressure like none he’d felt before, in his throat and in his pulse, right the way down to his bones.

 

He could feel the heat of Grimmjow’s breath on his lips, see black pupils contract to swallow blue eyes whole and all of Ichigo’s hard won courage would be lost in the open of that ocean gaze, cos he chickened out yet again and left Grimmjow standing there in the doorway, because doing thatwould surely take them beyond a line neither of them should cross.

 

Yeah, these moments were an everyday thing, even as they were everything still went on as normal, and he couldn’t help but wonder if beyond the line was a better place or not anyway.

 

 

*

 

It was their first Golden week, and there was an extra Shinigami or two in town to compensate for increased crowds that meant more hollow activity, it was no one he knew anyway, but they certainly knew him. There was no one in the Soul Society that didn’t know his name.

 

It didn’t stop the open look of disdain and indifference that Grimmjow was currently copping from two Soul reapers in their perfect Shīhakushō, because wherever Ichigo went so did Grimmjow, and this was no exception.

 

Grimmjow wasn’t unknown for his efforts in the war either, but the fact that he was a hollow still remained to them, but not to Ichigo.

 

Ichigo didn’t hate much, but he hated that look. The looked he used to get whenever he stepped foot into the Sereitei because he wasn’t the same as them then, either.

 

Grimmjow just stood there with his wicked up turned collar and his sharp jawline to go with it, uncaring of the obvious hole in his body and the fragment of hollow mask on his cheek, and he might not care, but Ichigo sure as fuck did.

 

Them looking at Grimmjow like that was like himself getting those looks all over again, because they were one in the damn same.

 

So here they were standing on an open rooftop in the darkness of night, and the only thing Ichigo could do was fume, of course the slip in his spiritual pressure would be noticeable to Grimmjow, who looked at him with an eye brow raised in a glimmer of concern.

 

“You treat Grimmjow the same as you treat me, you got that?” it was almost a growl, low enough for Ichigo to realize what he was doing and _why_. In his head he’d already crossed that line.

 

The two didn’t question it though, there was only a sweat on their brow and a nod to go with it, and that was the end of the arrangements to keep Tokyo secure for Golden week.

 

And Grimmjow fucking _knew_ , knew as he stood there looking at Ichigo with eyes as possessive as his own that it’d shifted now. The city lights sparkled their artificial glow beneath them, and the sky above twinkled like pin pricks in a the blanket sky of midnight, yet Grimmjow just barked a laugh and said, “Protective one, ain’t ya?”

 

“You would do the same.” Ichigo shot back instantly, he didn’t even need to question if it was true or not.

 

Grimmjow still confirmed it though, with a wild look in his eye and defensive gravel to his voice, he said; “Yeah, too fucking right I would.”

 

*

 

Golden Week had been and gone without incident for them, they were in front of their latest round of test scores, Ichigo at the front with Grimmjow hovering behind his shoulder, pressed close but not close enough. The pocket around them was smaller than usual, because the need to see your exam scores was more than the need to escape the uneasy feeling the pair gave off together.

 

He was too distracted to look at his own score; his eyes were locked on Grimmjow’s name instead.

 

“Number 1, Ichigo Kurosaki.” Came the hot commentary in his ear, full of pride and affection and everything that made this worth it.

 

Because underneath his name it read; “Number 2, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez.” The smile cracked his face before he’d even finished speaking, he’d won this round and come up on top, the very top, and like he’d miss the chance to rub it in.

 

Instead though, Grimmjow just laughed with him as he pulled them from the crowd, “Ah, you fuckin’ got me fair and square that time, you’re pretty amazing, you know that?!”

 

Their footsteps matched perfect as they turned their back on everyone to go and get ready to go out that night, and Ichigo couldn’t make a dig after Grimmjow had gone and said something like that, so all he could do was say; “Yeah… just like you.”

 

*

 

It was later that night, after Grimmjow’s obligatory round of drinks at a local bar they frequented, it was busier than usual, and they both hated it that way, so Ichigo was waiting alone while Grimmjow used the toilets before they left to go home.

 

Alone meant he was approachable enough for the girls on the opposite side of the room to make their way over and single one of themselves out to do the job of talking to him. She was cute in that innocent sort of way that Ichigo would never understand anymore, her hair perfect and her clothes too. In the back of his mind he couldn’t help but think that someone else’s messy hair was so much better.

 

“Excuse me, um, are you… going out with anyone right now?” and the way she shifted on her feet was endearing enough that he wasn’t completely oblivious, and he really should have taken those tips from Rukia about letting them down gently. Subtlety wasn’t his biggest virtue; he didn’t need it with Grimmjow.

 

Before he could answer though, a familiar weight snaked over his shoulders and pressed against his side as Grimmjow draped an arm across the back of his neck with a smirk and a play boy twinkle in his eye.

 

“Sorry to say, ladies, Ichigo here is taken, and his partner is a horridly jealous person.”

 

That was how their night at the bar ended; and how their night back at the dorm began.

 

The moment they were in the door it was slammed shut on its hinges with a thunderous bang, and Ichigo found himself caged against said door in between the two palms planted either side of his head as Grimmjow trapped him in.

 

The moment passed by in heartbeats, the pulse intimate and thrilling and Ichigo couldn’t ever see himself running from this again. Fuck no.

 

The azure striations of Grimmjow’s eyes were way too amazing to look at, the curve of his throat and the line of his collar bone and the way his throat rippled when he spoke, coarse with restraint. “What are we, Ichigo?”

 

It’d already been decided after all, so all there was, was for Ichigo to leave it up to Grimmjow to be game enough once more. “You tell me.”

 

The answer he wanted came as Grimmjow smashed their lips together in a kiss just as rough as their relationship, and the taste was better than he ever thought it would be.

 

All these months had built them up to this crescendo, there was no finesse or skill, just instinct and feel, because when it came down to it that’s all either of them had.

 

So Grimmjow’s mouth was on his neck, biting like the animal he was as he pressed Ichigo against the wall, and Ichigo gave back as good as he got by touching that body _finally,_ and feeling it on the tips of his fingers after wanting for so long.

 

Standing there against the door; patience and reason gone; it ended with hands on each others’ dicks and breathless groans into each others’ mouths in the rush to get off. Of Grimmjow’s fingers digging into his hip as he shuddered on the edge, and Ichigo fucking losing it because like everything they did they were the fucking same.

 

With stuttered movements and loose knees they both came, faces pressed in the crook of the others’ shoulder for support and closeness as their hips rolled helplessly to draw it out.

 

Blissed and dazed, they stayed like that to catch their breath, no awkwardness in their silence and no more questions between them.

 

“You came a lot. You don’t jack off in the shower?” Grimmjow had to go and ruin it though, that jackass.

 

“Oi, you can’t talk, so did you!” Ichigo bit back, because now there was a whole new bunch of shit Grimmjow could embarrass him with.

 

“Haha, I know, I’ve been waiting long enough.” Came the answering hum, full of satisfaction and smugness.

 

“Seeing those girls with me tonight set you off, huh?” he teased as he remembered what set this all off.  “You got jealous.”

 

Grimmjow was always forward, and now was no exception. “You bet your ass I did.” He drawled while he held Ichigo down with his gaze, “You would have too.”

 

Ichigo could be forward about this at least, lonely wasn’t a thing anymore, not with this guy, jealousy sure would be though. “Yeah… just like you.”

 

He wasn’t used to being the same as anyone, he never expected it to be like this, because _this,_ this was fucking amazing.

 

_End._


End file.
